WASHINGTON — The Foggy Bottom section of DC took on a surreal, almost magical feel even though it was one of the worst blizzards in the city's history. "Right now it's like the Epcot Center version of Washington," said Mary Lord, 56, a D.C. resident for some 30 years who had skied around the city.
President Obama called it "Snowmageddon." Even his motorcade — which featured SUVs instead of limousines — fell victim to the storm as a tree limb crashed onto a vehicle carrying press. No one was injured.

At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, servicemembers' names were buried 16 rows deep, while higher up snow had settled into the letters so they stood out against the black background. The wreaths of the World War II Memorial looked like giant white-frosted doughnuts. The big attraction at the Lincoln Memorial was not the nation's 16th president, but rather a snowman with eyes of copper pennies bearing Lincoln's likeness.

A group of four sopho­mores from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity took pic­tures nearby.

“I’m from Cal­i­for­nia. This is my first snow ever,” said Megan McDo­nough, 19. “My par­ents called and asked if I had enough food.”

The snow fell too quickly for crews to keep up, and offi­cials begged res­i­dents to stay home. The hope was every­one could return to work on Monday.

The usu­ally traffic-snarled roads were mostly bar­ren, save for some snow plows, fire trucks, ambu­lances and a few SUVs. The Cap­i­tal Belt­way, always filled with cars, was empty at times.

Car­olyn Matuska loved the quiet dur­ing her morn­ing run along Washington’s National Mall.

“Oh, it’s spec­tac­u­lar out,” she said. “It’s so beau­ti­ful. The temperature’s per­fect, it’s quiet, there’s nobody out, it’s a beau­ti­ful day.”

The ugly side of the snow led to thou­sands of wrecks. Still, only two peo­ple had died — a father-and-son team who were killed try­ing to help some­one stuck on a high­way in Virginia.

The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Wash­ing­ton. Accord­ing to the National Weather Ser­vice, Wash­ing­ton has received more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870.

The heav­i­est on record was 28 inches in Jan­u­ary 1922. The biggest snow­fall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before offi­cial records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Wash­ing­ton and Thomas Jef­fer­son penned in their diaries.